Prathigna Poonacha Kodira earned MSc in Human Settlements from Katholieke University, Belgium. She is Consultant – Practice at IIHS and part of the School of Environment and Sustainability. She mainly works with the climate change team and currently works on the CARIAA| ASSAR research programme. Her work focuses on understanding climate change impacts and responses in urban and peri-urban geographies both from top-down and bottom up perspectives. In peri-urban Bangalore, her research looks at how communities are responding to climatic and non-climatic risks in the context of rapid social and ecological changes with a particular focus on gender dynamics. She is also interested in understanding and applying various tools to enable multi-stakeholder participation in decision making especially in the urban context. One such tool is Transformative Scenario Planning which facilitates her interaction with diverse stakeholders to imagine the future of water in Bengaluru.

Prior to IIHS, Prathigna has worked as a consultant with the Habitat Forum (INHAF), a collaborative platform for civil society to propose a re-envisioning of urban investments in India by evaluating the impacts and outcomes of JnNURM through a citizen sector perspective. She was a Research Associate at the Centre for Conservation Studies, CEPT, Ahmedabad where as a part of the technical team, she helped prepare the dossier for the nomination of the old city of Ahmedabad to the UNESCO’s World Heritage Cities list. She has also worked as a Design Consultant in her early career, especially in the retail sector in Indian cities.